Last Rose of the Night
by paradise in your eyes
Summary: When the Yule Ball comes back to Hogwarts, Rose Weasley is hesitant about it, but will a certain someone pursuade her that it's not at all bad? - HIATUS.
1. Never Like This

chapter 1;

"The what?"

"What's that?"

"So is it going to replace the final Quidditch match before the holidays? It better not! Ravenclaw is gonna beat Hufflepuff!"

As I walked to the Great Hall after my final class of the day, Potions, those were all questions I heard as I passed the bulletin board outside the Great Hall.

"What's going on, Zoe?" I asked a girl that was in my dormitory who was standing by the bulletin board, Zoe Calder.

Zoe turned around, "Oh! Hi, Rose. Look!" She pointed at the very front and center of the bulletin board.

I couldn't see what the bulletin was about as I was standing near the back and there was about 10 kids cluddering around the board to check it out, so after a few quiet excuse me's, I finally had a front and center view of what the big event was.

The bulletin was a shimmery silver colour and was outlined in a really bright and chunky red. "The Yule Ball! On Christmas Day, 8:00-midnight. All years are invited to join this memorable event!" was written on the bulletin. The Yule Ball, I thought to myself. So that was what the buzz was about.

As I managed to make my way out of the now formed mob around the bulletin board, I tried to remember if there was ever a Yule Ball at Hogwarts? I was a fourth year student, and never in my four years at Hogwarts had I heard of a Yule Ball. I had some older cousins who had gone to Hogwarts and had long graduated, and every year when they were home for the summer or holidays, they never mentioned anything about a Yule Ball.

"Hey, Rose," my cousin Lily, who was in her second year, called over to me as I made my way to the Gryffindor table. She was seated near the end of the Gryffindor table with her homework spread on the table.

"Hi, Lil. A lot of homework today?" I asked her, noticing all the books and rolls of parchments that she had out in front of her. Lily was a second year and second years didn't get a lot of homework, it was mostly once you started your third year and you took the additional two classes. For me, I took Arithmacy and Care for Magical Creatures.

"I think this is the most I've gotten since I've came here!" Lily threw her quill down in frustration, "I've finally finished my notes for Charms! And now I have Potions and History of Magic! And what's the point of History of Magic! Professor Binns can't get my name right! He calls me, 'Miss Parker!' I've been in his class for almost two years!"

I laughed. "Have you heard about the Yule Ball?" I asked her, changing the subject away from Lily's frustration about Professor Binns and how he couldn't get Lily's name right.

"Of course! It's a ball after all!" Lily exclaimed, sounding happy that I had brought up the Yule Ball. Even though Lily and I were pretty much identical looking and blood related, our personalities were anything but identical. The only thing that was similar between us in our personalities was that we both loved and were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Lily was really girly and open with people, while I was a self-proclaimed wallflower and in my opinion, I was kind of a tomboy. I didn't like dresses or skirts and often wore jeans or a t-shirt.

"No wonder you're excited," I laughed at her. I could picture the weekends from now and until the Yule Ball: Lily and my other girl cousins debating and deciding about their dresses for the Yule Ball.

"Of course! And the most important thing of all; who are you going to go to the Yule Ball with?" Lily asked me, a mischeivous twinkle in her eye.

I froze, "You have to ask someone to go to the Yule Ball with?"

It didn't occur to me at all that you had to ask someone to the Yule Ball. Were you? But yeah, it was called a ball. Mum had read me Muggle stories when I was younger, such as Cinderella, my favourite Muggle story. There was a ball, and Cinderella had gone with Prince Charming and lived happily ever after. But I wasn't Cinderella and Cinderella wasn't me. Cinderella didn't have huge brown eyes, pale skin, and bright red hair. Cinderella didn't love playing Quidditch on a broomstick. And Cinderella wasn't a witch.

"Of course! That's what makes it fun." Lily smiled, "so tell me."

"Well, I dunno. I don't like someone..." I replied slowly. Crushes weren't something that were important to me. Friends, grades, and Quidditch were more important to me. Yeah, when I first arrived at Hogwarts I had short-lived crushes on some people, but they were never those crushes that became relationships snd stuff.

"You don't need to! C'mon, just go with someone in your year! Someone that you're friends with!" Lily begged me.

"Ugh, fine," I groaned, compromising with Lily just to make her be quiet.

"Yay!" Lily chirped, clapping her hands together. "Okay, now I need to get back to reality and do this stupid History of Magic worksheet!" Lily groaned, picking up her quill again.

"Need help?" I asked her.

"Nah. I'm pretty good with History of Magic," Lily replied, "thanks anyways."

I nodded as I got started on my Arithmacy worksheet. That was the only homework I had besides studying for a Charms quiz. I decided that I would study for my quiz after dinner so I went back to my dormitory.

"Bye, Lil," I said goodbye to my cousin once I finished my homework.

Lily looked up at me, "Oh, alright. I'll see you later."

I walked out the Great Hall and started to make my way up to the Gryffindor common room. The thought of the Yule Ball was still in my mind. It was about two weeks before Halloween, mid-October, and the Yule Ball was about two months away. What were we supposed to do for four hours? Stand there and talk? Was I supposed to come in a skirt and fancy shirt or come in a fancy gown? Did I have to go with someone?

"Hey, Rose," I heard someone call my name, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up and noticed that I was the only one in the corridor besides the person that called my name: Scorpius Malfoy.

"Hi, Scorp," I replied. Scorpius was a Slytherin and in the same year as me and we were friends through my cousin Albus, who was also in my year.

"What's up?" he asked me, "have you heard about the Yule Ball?"

"Of course! The mob crowding around the bulletin board today, that's all anyone can talk about!" I exclaimed.

He laughed, "Are you thinking of going?"

"Um, dunno. But it seems cool though. I haven't heard about anything like this before at Hogwarts," I replied.

"Me neither. It seems kinda girly though. But I wonder what we have to do at the ball? Dance all night? I hope they'll have good food," Scorpius answered.

"Food? Is that all you can think of?" I replied sarcastically. Of all the things that he could think of about the Yule Ball, food? Really?

"Yes, Mum," he replied, equally sarcastic.

"Whatever. I'll see you later," I replied, "bye, Scorp." And continued down the corridor.

"Bye, Mum!" he called to me as he walked down the corridor, the opposite direction as me.

"Whatever!" I called.

"Fluffclaws," I said to the Fat Lady once I got to the portrait hole of the Gryffindor common room.

The portrait swung open and I made my way up to my dormitory. There was a fire in the fireplace and a few kids sitting around the common room.

I slumped down on my bed once I finally got up to my dormitory. The thought of the Yule Ball was overwhelming and I remembered what Lily had said to me, "Just ask someone in your year and that you're friends with!" and then I remembered the conversation I had shortly afterwards with Scorpius. 'No', I thought to myself, 'Anyone but Scorpius.'


	2. Deadlines and Commitments

chapter 2;

* * *

An owl had swooped down to where I was sitting the next morning at breakfast in the Great Hall with an envelope in its possesions.

"Hi, Hermes," I said once I noticed that the owl was my owl, Hermes. Hermes looked up at me pecked my index finger affectionately as I was trying to untie the letter that was tied to Hermes.

"Thanks," I smiled at him. Hermes pecked my finger one last time before flying away.

"Ooh, letter. Whose it from?" I heard a voice behind me as I opened the seal on the letter.

I turned around and looked up to see who it was: Lily. "Hey, Lil. I think it's from Mum," I greeted my cousin as she took a seat next to me. I had noticed that my name was written on the envelope in Mum's usual neat handwriting.

"Awesome. Tell Aunt Hermione I say hi," Lily replied as she loaded her plate in front of her with bacon and potatoes.

I finished my oatmeal before reading the letter,

Dear Rosie,

We heard the news from Harry and Ginny through Lily! The Yule Ball is coming back to Hogwarts. You probably don't want to hear about how MY Yule Ball went, I'll just tell you that it was a memorable experience. I'm so excited that something like this is happening at Hogwarts again and when the Yule Ball came to Hogwarts when I was a student, I was in ny fourth year also! I'm sure you're going to have a lovely dress and you're going to have a great time! Tell your brother that if he wants to ask someone to go with him and there's someone he wants to ask, tell him that he needs to ask them BEFORE and not at the last minute. Just saying from experience... Your father is saying that you better accept going with someone respectable and no Slytherins... be sure to write back!

Love, Mum and Dad

I smiled as I tucked the letter into my book bag. After breakdast, I headed to my first class of the day, Herbology.

"See you later, Lily," I said to my cousin as I headed down to the greenhouses for Herbology.

"Hey, Rose! Wait up!" I heard my name being called as I walked out of the Great Hall.

I turned around and saw my friend/dormitory mate, Zoe. "Hi, Zo. What's up?" I asked her once she caught up with me. We were in the same Herbology class at the beginning of the day and she was one of my only friends/the people I was close to/knew in Herbology class so it was fun to have a friendly face.

"Nothing much. I think I hate Herbology right now," Zoe shrugged, twirling a lock of her chocolate brown hair around her index finger as we headed down the stairs.

"Why?" I asked her. Herbology wasn't too bad. I was close with Professor Longbottom who had been my mum and dad's friend and learning about plants was interesting.

"What we're learning. It's kinda gross though," Zoe explained.

I opened the door to our greenhouse classroom, "Oh! Yeah, it's kinda gross, but kind of interesting." Right now we were learning about bubotuber pus and it was kind of gross.

"Yeah. I really can't wait until the Yule Ball," Zoe changed the subject as we took a seat near the back of the greenhouse.

"Oh, yeah. The Yule Ball," I said slowly, pretending that I had forgotton about it.

"Why you don't like it?" Zoe studied my face.

I didn't really know what to say about the Yule Ball. When I first learned about it, it seemed kind of fun and interesting, but after Lily started bombarding me with questions about dresses and asking people to it, I had kind of shyed away, you know? I wasn't one of those gossipy girls in my year, I wasn't one of those girls who strolled around Hogsmeade with their boyfriends going on dates and everything. In fact, I had never had a boyfriend before nor was I sure if anyone I ever liked me before.

"I dunno. It just doesn't seem like my thing," I replied honestly.

"Because it's not Quidditch?" Zoe asked me playfully. Almost all my friends had known about my love for Quidditch. I was one of the three Chasers on the Gryffindor house team and the wall right next to my four poster bed room was completely covered in posters of the Falmouth Falcons taped with Spellotape.

"Somewhat," I joked to her.

"Knew it," Zoe said.

I was about to add something on but at that moment, Professor Longbottom walked into the class, signaling the start of class and the end of our conversation about the Yule Ball.

The bubotuber pus wasn't that gross, so I guess you could say that Herbology class went well, and we had no homework, which was a bonus.

The next classes I had were Arithmacy and Care of Magical Creatures, and by the time Charms rolled around next, I was already tired even though we had a period before lunch. We had to do 2 worksheets for Arithmacy and notes on Blast-Ended Skewts. I wasn't prepared on what was in store for Charms class as we usually had the most work and homework for Charms class.

By the time I had walked into Charms, most of the class was already there and there was Professor Flitwick standing on his little wooden stool, looking happy and greeting students as they walked in. We were having class with the Slytherins today as the Slytherins had all sat together and near each other in the front of the class, and a few Slytherins were in the back to the class

"Hello, Miss Weasley!" Professor Flitwick greeted me cheerfully.

"Hi, Professor Flitwick." I smiled at him before taking a seat next to my friend, Summer Grant, in the middle row. Summer was a good friend of mine in my year.

"Hi, Summer," I greeted her as I took a seat in the chair next to hers. She was doodling something in her notebook before she looked up at me. Typical Summer, I thought to myself. Summer was really artistic and was often caught doodling in Charms or Astronomy, a class we had together.

It took a moment before Summer noticed that I was sitting next to her. "Hey, Rose!" she greeted me once she noticed I was there.

"It took you long enough," I joked at her playfully.

Summer laughed while fixing the front of her awfully straight and shiny light brown hair that I was really jealous of. Sure, I loved the colour of my hair as not a lot of people at Hogwarts- except for people in the Weasley clan, had bright red fiery hair but I had wished that my hair could be that straight and shiny.

"I heard that Professor Flitwick is going to give us a project to work on," Summer continued.

"Really?" I perked up a little. I really liked projects in classes. They were much more fun than doing the regular classwork and homework.

"Yup," Summer replied as Professor Flitwick cleared his throat, signaling the start of Charms.

"Good morning everyone!" Professor Flitwick squeakes cheerfully. I really liked Professor Flitwick, he always had this happy vibe around him and was cheerful and he made class fun.

"Good morning, Professor Flitwick," the class replied in unison. I shouldn't have said the entire class because you could mostly hear the Gryffindors and not the Slytherins.

"I have exciting news for all of you!" Professor Flitwick replied happily, "I've decided for your final grade this quarter, we'll do a project!"

I looked up when Professor Flitwick mentioned the project. So Summer was right, I thought to myself.

"The objective is to present and teach the class about a spell or charm that we have not learned yet. This will be worth half your grade for the quarter. There is a writing component on how this charm or spell is helpful, one roll of parchment minimum. You will be judged on how fluent your presentation is, how well the charm is taught, and how the writing piece will turn out," Professor Flitwick continued.

"Are we going to have partners?" a Slytherin girl asked Professor Flitwick.

"Ah, yes!" Professor Flitwick nodded, "I've assigned the partners!"

There was a slight groan from the entire class and I think I know why; us Gryffindors would surely be paired up with a Slytherin, and Gryffindors and Slytherin still rivals. Personally, I wasn't part of this rivalry much because I was friends with Scorpius who was in Slytherin and I had never had a bad experience or encounter with a Slytherin.

Professor Flitwick began reading off the partners on his list. Like I guessed, Professor Flitwick had paired Gryffindors up with Slytherins and from the look of it, most people weren't happy at all.

"And we have Rose Weasley with Scorpius Malfoy," Professor Flitwick read off of the list.

"Good luck with that," Summer whispered from next to me. She was still working on the picture she was drawing before class started.

I was still frozen, unable to speak. Of all the people in Slytherin that I could be paired up with, I was paired up with Scorpius? The thing yesterday with Lily and how she told me to ask someone in my year that I was friends with still lingered in my head. Yeah, I hung out with guys, but they were my cousins, and looking at it, Scorpius was really my only guy friend.

The thought of asking Scorpius to the Yule Ball was forever stuck in my head. Thanks, Lily, I thought to myself annoyedly.

"Those are your partners! The project will probably be due before the holidays, so it is important to start meeting up and discussing the project," Professor Flitwick explained.

For the remainder of the class, Professor Flitwick handed out a worksheet for us to work on and then it was time for lunch.

"Rose!" I heard my name being called as I was heading out of the Charms classroom and out to the Great Hall for lunch.

I turned around to see that it was Scorpius, of whom I was partners with for this project that was worth half my Charms grade. Insert unidentified emotions.

"Yeah? Hey, Scorpius," I said to him.

"So I guess that we should meet up eventually for the project? How about next Tuesday in the library? After dinner? Maybe 7:30?" Scorpius walked closer to me.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I'll see you then," I smiled at him.

He was about to say something else before getting interrupted by a voice behind him. "Scorpius?" Someone else called him. He turned around to see who it was. I looked and noticed that it was another Slytherin girl in our year as she was holding the fourth year Charms book and had the Slytherin house crest sewn to her robes. She had long dirty blonde hair and an "I'm a Slytherin" expression on her face.

"Oh, this is Serena. Serena Whiteley. Serena's my girlfriend..." Scorpius explained, trailing off at the 'girlfriend' part.

I blinked slowly before saying anything. "Oh, I'm Rose!" I introduced myself, trying not to seem like I was weirded out or annoyed or MAD at the fact that even though Scorpius and I were friends, he never mentioned having a girlfriend? Who am I to sound mad? I didn't like him at all, so why was I sounding so jealous? Was I?

"Oh, well, let's go to lunch, Scorp. Bye, Rose," she said swiftly before turning the other way with Scorpius in tow, heading for the Great Hall, leaving me alone in the corridor.

* * *

A/N -

Chapter 2! Thank you to all the people who have alerted/favourited Last Rose of the Night! You guys are amazing! Can we get one review at least? ;) Love you guys!

-Juliet


	3. Breathe

chapter 3;

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter! The amazing, JK Rowling, does!

"Albus!" I marched down the aisle between the Hufflepuff table and Gryffindor table in the Great Hall looking for my cousin as I marched into the Great Hall right after I found out that Scorpius had a girlfriend. Even after the endeavor from the Charms classroom to the Great Hall, I still couldn't even get over the fact that he had a girlfriend?

"What?" I had found Albus with a half-eaten bacon sandwich sitting with our seventh year cousin, Louis, who was also in Gryffindor.

"Hey, Rose," Louis greeted me.

"Hi, Louis. Would you mind like moving away for a few seconds?" I asked Louis swiftly.

"Sure?" Louis had a questioning look on his face before scooting down the bench a few feet, out of earshot from what Albus and I would say.

"Thanks," I called down to Louis.

"What?" Albus asked me annoyedly. Even though we were cousins, we still had that brother/sister relationship, getting annoyed at each other if we acknowledged each other in public, arguing, ect.

"Scorpius has a girlfriend?" I calmed down a little, taking a seat on the bench next to him.

Albus took another bite of his sandwich. I rolled my eyes a little. Boys and food. "Yeah. Serena. Serena Whiteley. Why?" he asked me curiously once he swallowed his sandwich.

"How long have they been going out?" I was pretty much interrogating Al at this point, but I didn't really care.

"Since May of last year," Albus raised an eyebrow at me. "Why?" he asked.

"Just wondering because he suddenly mentioned that he had a girlfriend?" I said.

"Yeah, well... Oh... Albus trailed off as if he had some life changing epiphany.

"What?" I asked Albus curiously.

"You like Scorpius don't you?" Albus gave me an "I know it" look.

"What!?" I exclaimed out of shock. I didn't LIKE Scorpius?What exactly was Al trying to say? That I was jealous of Scorpius's girlfriend, Serena? That I wanted to BE with Scorpius. I didn't like him relationship wise one bit!

"Don't worry, I won't tell him," Albus promised me.

"Al, I don't LIKE Scorpius! I'm mad that he wouldn't tell me that for the past 5 months he's had a girlfriend!" I spat angrily, trying to prove that not at all did I have romantic feelings for Scorpius Malfoy.

"Fine, you don't like him," Albus waved me off.

"Fine, bye," I said angrily at my cousin. I got up out of the bench and walked down to near the middle of the Gryffindor table to find my friends who were eating.

"There you are!" Zoe exclaimed when I finally found my friends. She was sitting with Summer and Lizzie Clements, another girl from my dormitory. I took a seat next to Summer who was doodling away while eating.

"We were wondering where you were," Lizzie said, taking a bite of her sandwich, sitting next to Zoe.

"Interrogating my cousin," I replied, taking a sandwich from the silver tray in front of me.

"Why?" Zoe asked me curiously.

I quickly filled them in on the whole running into Scorpius and finding out he has a girlfriend situation.

"That git!" Summer managed to turn her attention away from her artwork to exclaim that after I filled them in on what had happened.

"Honestly Rose, I don't know why you're friends with that Slytherin!" Lizzie expressed her opinion on the situation.

Zoe, ever being the peacemaker of our little group, expressed herself too, "Just 'cause Slytherin and Gryffindor had their rivalry and fights back then doesn't mean WE should have fights with Slytherins also. Some of them are nice."

Summer, Lizzie, and I gave Zoe a look. "Really, Zo? Name one," Summer said.

Zoe thought about it for a few seconds, "I dunno, but there probably are some nice Slytherins out there! We just well, have yet to meet them!"

"There's Scorpius," I defended my only Slytherin friend.

"Who didn't tell you that he's had a girlfriend for the past 5 months? Seriously, what is her name anyways?" Lizzie asked me.

I shrugged, "Serena, I think? Serena Whiteley?"

Summer was sipping some pumpkin juice before swallowing it dramatically and slamming her cup down on the table.

"Bug in your juice?" Zoe raised her eyebrow at Summer.

"No!" Summer exclaimed, "do you know ANYTHING about Serena Whiteley?!"

"Um, she's in Slytherin," Lizzie put in, looking confused/

"She's dating Scorpius Malfoy," I mumbled.

"And she's in Slytherin?" Zoe added quickly, not really knowing much about Serena.

"Serena Whiteley has gone through more guys in her three years here than how many Quaffles Zoe got through the goal posts last Quidditch season!" Summer exclaimed.

"So either you're implying that Scorpius's girlfriend has gone through half the school, or I'm just horrible and didn't play at all last Quidditch season?" Zoe asked sarcastically.

"I should've rephrased that: She's gone through like half the guys in this school!" Sunmer answered.

"Amazing. No wonder Scorpius went for her," I mumbled again, taking a sip of my pumpkin juice.

"Rose, don't put yourself down. Besides, you don't even like him!" Zoe encouraged me.

"Yeah, true. I'm just annoyed because he wouldn't tell me and stuff," I replied.

"Look on the bright side, our first Hogsmeade visit is on Friday! And Halloween is also in 2 days!" Lizzie brightened the mood.

"Don't they hand out extra candy on Halloween at Honeydukes?" Zoe added.

"Yeah, I think they do!" Summer replied happily.

As my friends continued on about Hogsmeade, I thought about it slowly. Why was I getting so furious? I didn't like Scorpius. He was just a friend. He had a right to date or fancy anyone of his choice; it wasn't my decision.

"Yeah, can't wait. It's gonna be fun." I smiled at my friends after snapping out of my thoughts. I could hardly wait for Friday now. After all the weirdness and announcement of the Yule Ball, I needed some fun with my friends.

A/N-

Slightly shorter chapter ;3 But yeah. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THE TWO AMAZINGLY AWESOME SPECTACULAR PEOPLE WHO REVIEWED LAST CHAPTER. Chocolate Frogs to you! :3 haha! But yeah, the next chapter is going to be Rose and her friends going to Hogsmeade. I was going to add them going into Hogsmeade in this chapter, but I decided it was going to be a slightly-too-long chapter. I'm halfway done with that chapter! Please review! You guys are amazing :)

-Juliet.


	4. This Is What Makes Us Girls

chapter 4;

A/N- I've realized that I've added a little too much of Rose's friends (and they're all OCs so not everyone probably likes them) so in this chapter, you get some Weasley/Potter clan bonding :3 Tell me what you want me to add in the reviews!

By the time Friday rolled around, I was almost bursting with anticipation and excitement about going to Hogsmeade. I wasn't sure if I had ever been so excited to go to Hogsmeade before. I wasn't as excited last year when the third years were finally allowed to go to Hogsmeade. I had been to Hogsmeade numerous times in the past. But this time, I was almost too excited.

I wanted to escape all the drama, again, and just spend the next two hours in the village drinking hot butterbeer (as it was getting cold), buying a month's supply of candy with my friends so we could stash it in our dormitory, be forced to go to Zonko's with James and Fred, my cousins, and laughing through the village.

"You're excited," Lily noted once she saw me that afternoon in the Great Hall. Every Halloween, they cut the last class for everyone, which was nice.

"Yeah, I am. I wish you were going as well," I said sadly to Lily. She and my brother, Hugo, still had another year before they could go on the monthly Hogsmeade visits. But again, our families had been to Hogsmeade multiple times before.

"Whatever," Lily waved me off, "be sure to get me something from Honeydukes."

"Sure!" I replied. It was time to go now as all the third years and above started piling out of the Great Hall.

"Bye, Lil," I said to her before walking out of the Great Hall.

"Bye, Rose!" Lily called to me.

I got my folded-up permission out incase someone walked around to collect it.

"Hi, guys," I greeted Summer, Zoe, and Lizzie when I found them standing near the back of the group of kids that were going to Hogsmeade.

"Hey!" Zoe greeted me, pulling her blue scarf tighter around her neck.

"Is it really that cold?" I joked a little. I was only wearing my blue jeans and a matching blue and grey striped jacket. Zoe on the other hand was wearing a blue scarf, black coat, and an owl beanie. Compared to her, I felt as if I was freezing. It was kind of windy, but not too cold.

"Nope. Zoe's just a freak," Summer smiled, putting her hands in the pockets of her maroon cardigan.

"Thanks," Zoe replied sarcastically.

"C'mon, we're going," Lizzie pointed at the group that started to walk.

"Permission slip?" a professor asked us once we started walking. We gave our permission slips to the professor and walked to Hogsmeade.

The walk wasn't that long, a mere 10 minutes. By the time we got to the village, we could smell the butterscotchy smell of butterbeer coming from The Three Broomsticks.

"Where should we go first?" I asked my friends.

"Can we hit The Three Broomsticks please?" Lizzie asked us.

"No! Look at the line," Summer pointed at the crowd of people lining out of the Three Broomsticks. This wasn't too weird or unusual. The Three Broomsticks was always packed on days like this.

"I've got a great idea!" Lizzie exclaimed suddenly.

"If it's bodyslamming the people in the line for the Three Brooksticks out of the way to get your butterbeer, no!" Zoe replied.

"No! Let's go to Miranda's!" Lizzie answered Zoe.

My eyes widened. As much as I loved my friends, I was not in the mood to go to Miranda's right now. I was here at Hogsmeade to hang out and stuff, not shopping.

Miranda's was a dress shop that opened in Hogsmeade a few years ago and it was well known for its party dresses which were popular with us Hogwarts girls. I had been there before when it first opened with my older cousin, Dominique, and we made fun of the girls who were trying on dresses and stuff.

"Great idea!" Summer high-fived Lizzie.

"Um, I'm not really in the mood for dress shopping right now... I'll just go to Honeydukes," I mumbled right before they started walking east of Hogsmeade to Miranda's.

"You're not going with us?" Zoe cried.

"Um, maybe next time. I'm just a little tired right now," I lied. It wasn't a complete lie though. I was pretty tired from the classes and wasn't in the mood to go dress shopping.

"Bye, Rose," my friends called to me as they were walking down the road and to the dress shop.

I had about 2 hours to myself now, alone. What should I do? I had a sack of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts and I was alone in Hogsmeade. I decided to head to Honeydukes first to get some candy.

"Happy Halloween!" someone in the front of Honeydukes greeted me as I walked into the candy shop.

I smiled. I headed over to near the back of the store where the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Jellybeans were. They were my favourite and everytime I went to Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, I had to get at least two bags of them.

As I finally got my two bags of Bertie Bott's Jellybeans and got into line to pay, I saw my cousin Lucy, who was in her fifth year, standing nearby checking out the Acid Pop display.

"Luce!" I called to her, getting out of my place in line to meet her. Unlike the rest of the Weasley/Potter clan, Lucy wasn't in Gryffindor, but in Hufflepuff. We rarely had time to talk and she was in the year above. Lucy was my closest-to-my-age cousin, excluding Al.

Lucy turned around and smiled when she saw me. "Hi, Ro!" she exclaimed cheerfully. Lucy had long chestnut brown hair and brilliant bright blue eyes. She was the perfect example of a Hufflepuff student; she was always nice to everyone, she was always cheerful and accepting.

"Why are you alone?" I asked her curiously. When I usually see Lucy walking around Hogwarts in the corridors, she would be surrounded by many of her friends. This was unusual.

"They're all at Miranda's," Lucy groaned, "why are you alone? Where are Zoe and those girls?" Lucy knew some of my friends because of Zoe being on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Mine too!" I exclaimed loudly, not noticing that some people had turned to look to see what was going on.

Lucy laughed a little, "I'm not exactly in the mood to go dress shopping. I mean, it's Halloween. Do these people even know how precious Halloween in Hogsmeade is?"

I nodded in agreement. Well, Halloween was only once a year, and Hogsmeade took celebrating this holiday seriously. There were pumpkins carved in elaborate designs everywhere, Halloween decorstions hanging everywhere, and Hogsmeade was flooded with people just handing out free candy.

"Exactly," I agreed with Lucy. After I paid for my Bertie Bott's Jellybeans, Lucy and I headed out of Honeydukes.

"What'cha want to do?" Lucy asked me, "we can always go to Three Broomsticks." She pointed at it from across.

"Sure," I shrugged. The Three Broomsticks didn't look as crowded as it did about half an hour ago and even if it was dead empty, my friends probably didn't want to go to hang out and drink butterbeer anyways.

"C'mon," Lucy said to me as we headed into The Three Broomsticks.

It was about 3/4 full so we found an empty table for two easily. "Two butterbeers," Lucy said to a waitress after we were seated.

"That's it?" the waitress scribbled down our order. I nodded.

"Thank you," Lucy said politely to the waitress once she walked off to get our butterbeers. Lucy then turned her attention over to me, "What's up with your life?"

I sighed. If there was one word to describe how my life had basically turned upside down in less than a week, it would be 'overwhelming.'

"Tiring," I replied, choosing a closely related word to the one I had in mind. But it was true. The Yule Ball approaching, the giant Charms project Professor Flitwick assigned, and finding out that Scorpius has a girlfriend?

"You're a fourth year, it can't be that rough, can it?" Lucy asked me as the waitress came back with our butterbeers, "thank you."

"Oh, it's bad," I said to her. I tried to sum it up about the Yule Ball, the project, and Scorpius in less than 3 minutes.

"Whoa, wait? Scorpius Malfoy? Like Al's best friend?" Lucy asked me curiously after I finished.

"Yup." I took a sip of the butterbeer that was in front of me. Albus, my cousin, and Scorpius Malfoy were best friends even though they were in Gryffindor and Slytherin. Everyone in our family knew about their friendship.

"Wow, who is this girl?" Lucy asked.

"Some girl named Serena Whiteley," I replied.

"Hmm. I've heard of her. She has a nice name I guess?" Lucy tried to make light of the situation.

"Hey, it's Luce and Rose!" We heard a voice call for us.

Lucy and I turned our heads in the direction we heard out names being called.

Our cousins, Fred and James approached us, their hands full of products from Zonko's. No surprise there. Fred and James were the big pranksters of our family along with Fred's sister, Roxanne, and our cousin who had graduated from Hogwarts a few years ago, Dominique.

"Hey, guys," Lucy waved at them. I smiled. They pulled out two chairs from a nearby table once they got to our table and sat down.

"Why didn't you guys get us any butterbeer?" Fred joked, pointing at the two glasses of butterbeer in front of us for Lucy and me.

"Hah, sorry," I smirked, "you can get your own butterbeers."

"Please!" James wheedled, "we spent almost our entire money on Zonko's products." He pointed at the items he and Fred had. Fred nodded in agreement.

"How... how can you even spend all your money on Zonko's products? In my five years here at Hogwarts, I've never even stepped foot into Zonko's!" Lucy cried in disbelief.

"That's because you're an innocent Hufflepuff, Luce. And Molly probably wouldn't let you, would she?" Fred snickered.

"Shut up!" Lucy replied. Molly was Lucy's older sister and was a Ravenclaw and from what I saw, Molly was kind of protective of Lucy even though Lucy was already in her fifth year. Molly was in her seventh and last year here at Hogwarts.

"You guys are so weird," I said to the three of them. Lucy narrowed her eyebrows. "Not you, Luce," I said quickly to her.

"But seriously. You've never been to Zonko's?" James asked Lucy.

"Again, Molly doesn't allow it, does she?" Fred teased.

"But I've gone out with more guys than her!" Lucy cried annoyedly.

"You have!?" I laughed. I couldn't believe it. I had never seen Lucy with a guy walking around Hogwarts or her talking about one, but again, we're not in the same house, and she's older.

James wolf-whistled and Fred patted her on the back. "Shut up!" Lucy said angrily.

"Fine. But Luce, you know we're just playing with you?" Fred asked her.

Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Are you going to the Yule Ball, Little Rosie Posie?" James turned his attention over to me.

"Don't talk to him. Stranger danger," Lucy said to me.

"Cousins by blood," James reminded Lucy.

I laughed. "Well, I dunno..." I replied to James.

"I wanna see who you're going to ask to dance," Lucy said to James.

"Someone awfully desperate and ugly and probably has shagged half the school," I joked. It was rare of me to make jokes about shagging or making fun of people but again, it was James.

Fred burst out laughing, "Good job! Little Rosie Posie is growing up!"

"Don't call me 'Little Rosie Posie'," I scowled at Fred.

"Well, I've been asked to the Yule Ball once..." James said.

"By who!?" Lucy asked him, not believing him.

"Sammy Endyn," James replied.

"Did you say yes?" I asked James, "and who is this girl!?"

"I said no. And she's a sixth year Ravenclaw," James replied.

"Poor Sammy Endyn," Fred said dryly.

"I told her that it was too early to decide whether I wanted to go to the Yule Ball with someone or be home with my family," James replied.

"You liar! You're obviously going to the Yule Ball! You're not spending time with family any time this holiday!" Lucy said to him.

"I'm spending time with you people right now. You're my cousins. Cousins are family," James pointed out, "and besides, Sammy Endyn isn't at all my type. A little too ugly."

"James! You git!" Lucy stood up and smacked him on the arm,

"you don't call people ugly! She might've been really scared to ask you!"

"She's not my type! Calm down!" James exclaimed defensively.

"Still!" Lucy said.

"Okay, we're bored," Fred said and stood up. "It's been nice talking to you two cousins," he added and pushed his chair in, "let's go, James."

"Yeah. Somewhere where people don't hit other people," James said, eyeing Lucy.

"Somewhere where people don't call other people ugly!" Lucy shot back.

"Nice comeback," I complemented her once Fred and James were out of earshot.

"Yeah, I have my moments," Lucy smiled.

"We still haven't finished our butterbeers," I pointed at the two half-drank butterbeers that Lucy and I had long forgotton about and now were dripping onto the table.

"C'mon, let's chug it," Lucy suggested, smiling a little.

"Alright," I shrugged and picked up my glass, "go!"

Lucy and I slammed down our glasses nearly at the same time. The glasses were completely empty now. It was kind of nice, chugging down the cold-ish butterbeer. It left a butterscotchy after taste.

After we finished, Lucy left a Galleon on our empty table and we walked out of The Three Broomsticks.

"C'mon, let's head back to Hogwarts. I bet the feast is starting soon," I said to Lucy once we were outside of The Three Broomsticks. The sky was now an orangeish pink and there were less Hogwarts students around and they were all heading down the path back to Hogwarts.

"I forgot about the feast!" Lucy exclaimed as she and I started walking back to Hogwarts.

"Yeah, the feast where they serve ubër good food, floating carved pumpkins and cool bats flying everywhere?" I reminded Lucy playfully.

"Oh yeah! I love the Halloween feast!" Lucy smiled. I loved the Halloween feast as well. It was one of my favourite days of the year.

"Ditto!" I replied to Lucy.

We continued talking about the Halloween feast and our favourite Halloween feast memories until we got back to Hogwarts. When we got to the Great Hall, most kids were sitting at their house tables waiting for the feast to begin.

"Bye, Luce," I said to my cousin as she headed to her table, Hufflepuff, and I walked to the Gryffindor table. As I headed there I thought, 'Wow. This has been a good Halloween so far.'


	5. White Houses

chapter 5;

A/N - A big fat **disclaimer**: If you haven't noticed, all the previous chapter titles + this one + future ones are named after chapter titles, so no way am I claiming that these title names are mine!

* * *

"Merlin, I think I have a Halloween hangover," My cousin, James groaned that following Monday at the Gryffindor table during breakfast.

I rolled my eyes at my cousin. I was sitting with Lily again and we had the (sort of) misfortune to sit near James. But I didn't mind as they were my family.

"James, Halloween was on Friday. It's Monday," Lily told her older brother.

"Lils, you're too young to understand a hangover," James continued as he scooped some scrambled eggs onto his plate and poured some pumpkin juice into his glass.

"I'm only a second year! I'm gonna turn 13 this year! I know what a hangover is," Lily retorted indignatly.

"You guys are so weird," I said as I grabbed two strips of bacon onto my plate.

"You gotta be a Potter to understand the weirdness and awesomeness, Rosie," James said to me.

"I don't think I want to," I shook my head.

"Yeah, I'm not too proud either," Lily joked.

After breakfast, I headed to my morning classes. They went by pretty quickly, and right before lunchtime, it was time for Charms.

A weekend full of candy eating and goofing off managed to get me to forget about the huge-worth-half-your grade project Professor Flitwick assigned. Great.

"You're required to meet at least 3 times before the project is due. I will give you the class period to plan your project," Professor Flitwick said to the class a few minutes after Charms had started. We had class with the Slytherins again.

"Wish we luck," Summer said to me right before everyone stood up to find and meet with their partners.

"Oh, who do you have?" I took out a roll of parchment from my bookbag and a quill.

"Delilah Saunders," Summer groaned.

"It can't be that can it?" I asked Summer. I personally didn't know Delilah so I couldn't say whether she was bad, but the way Summer put it, she seemed bad.

"Dunno. Who do you have?" Summer shrugged.

"Scorpius Malfoy," I answered.

"Well, try not to make it awkward, Rose," Summer reminded me. The memory of the Scorpius girlfriend thing had managed to escape my mind for a few days but suddenly it came back.

"Well, he doesn't know that I really, well... I don't even know!" I mumbled in frustration. I didn't even know why I felt this way? I felt like I was battling the thought of Scorpius and his girlfriend in my mind now.

"See ya," Summer said to me and pointed at Delilah who was waiting for her across the room. I nodded as Summer walked away.

Scorpius was sitting near the middle of the class at an empty table and scribbling something down on a piece of parchement. Well, that was what it looked like from near the back of the classroom.

"Hi, Scorpius," I said to him, sitting down in the empty seat next to his.

It took him a few seconds to register that I was right there. "Scorp?" I asked again. It was like he was in his own world writing something down or something. It was like trying to get Zoe out of bed on an early Saturday morning for a Quidditch practice.

"Oh, hi, Rose!" Scorpius looked up at me. He took the scrap of parchment, whatever he was writing on, and stuffed it in his Charms textbook and slammed it shut quickly.

"Hi...?" I asked slowly. My mind couldn't get off whatever he was writing. It just seemed so mysterious the way he didn't notice me calling for him and when he finally saw me, he acted like it was a big secret, slamming shut his textbook and stuffing the paper in it.

"Um, should we begin our planning and stuff?" he asked me, sensing the weirdness and how I reacted when he finally looked up.

"Yeah, sure," I replied. I took out my roll of parchment and quill.

"Should we use your book?" I added. Maybe if we used his book, I would get a chance to see what he was writing? I froze. This wasn't like me. I wasn't such a snoop. Rose Weasley, the class snoop, I thought to myself. I usually gave people space and I didn't question their actions a lot.

"Nah, let's use yours. My book is uncovered and I'm not in the mood to get yelled at by Professor Flitwick for having an uncovered book," Scorpius replied, smiling. A rule in Professor Flitwick's class was to always cover your textbook. Most people didn't follow this rule, but my book was always neatly covered for the sake of wanting to do well in class and staying on Professor Flitwick's good side.

"Sure," I smiled pleasantly. I noticed that his book wasn't covered, but I couldn't help but think was this because he didn't want to see the note he had been writing.

"Um, what spell d'ya wanna do?" Scorpius asked me.

"Professor Flitwick said that it had to be a spell that we haven't learned before, or a spell that is in our year level," I replied, flipping through my textbook.

"Can I see the textbook?" Scorpius asked me.

"Sure." I pushed the textbook over to him.

"We can do the Summoning Charm," Scorpius said, looking through the book.

"Did Professor Flitwick say that he was going to teach us that?" I asked him. Fourth years usually learned the Summoning Charm, well, at least that was what James learned when he was fourth year. I could still vividly remember walking into the Gryffindor common room each evening for a week and hearing my older cousin bellow, "Accio!" and an object flying towards him.

"Ask him? He did say our grade level," Scorpius argued.

I bit my lip. It wasn't that I didn't want to disagree with Scorpius or fight, but seriously? The Summoning Charm? That was probably as easy as Wingardium Leviosa. I didn't want to do a really simple charm. I wanted to do a tougher charm. After all, Scorpius was in Slytherin. Aren't Slytherins supposed to be ambitious?

"Yeah, but don't you think he'll give us a better grade if we do something that he hasn't taught yet and isn't in our year?" I tried to hint to Scorpius that we should do something harder.

"Sure," Scorpius shrugged, "but you're doing the research and stuff."

"It's a group project, Scorp. I'm not doing all the work while on the day its due, you just scribble your name on it," I replied, growing a bit annoyed. I know that something like that wasn't something to grow mad at but in my family, I was known for having the "Weasley temper" and growing mad quickly.

"I know, Rose. I was kidding," he smiled. "Let's choose a charm."

"Yeah, but we're doing something above the fourth year level. These charms are only for fourth year students?" I pointed it out.

"Oh yeah. So what's up?" he asked casually.

"'What's up'? Scorpius, we're working on a project!" I was in a driven mode right now.

"Relax. When Al said that you were hard to work with, I didn't think that you were this hard," Scorpius said.

What. Al and Scorpius talked about me? "You guys were talking about me?" I asked them curiously. What. What in the name of a hippogriff's left wing feather were they saying about me?

"Yeah. I told him that you were my partner for the Charms project and he said 'watch out'," Scorpius replied, shrugging.

I laughed a little. Albus and I were cousins but we treated each other like brother and sister and constantly made fun of each other so I didn't take what Albus said too seriously.

"So should we meet at the library sometime this week to find other charms books so we can find a charm for the project as all the charms in our textbook are 'not hard enough'?" Scorpius air-quoted.

"Yeah. What time? Not Wednesday though. First Quidditch practice of the year," I told him. The first Quidditch practice of the season was two days from today and I could hardly wait. For getting all O's on my report card last summer, my parents had gotten me a Firebolt and I could hardly wait to use it as I was only able to use it about 4 or 5 times during the summer.

"Alright. How about Thursday night?" he asked me.

I didn't have anything planned Thursday night (that I was aware of) so I guess Thursday night could work. "Thursday night it is," I replied, smiling.

"Awesome," Scorpius said.

I had noticed that most of the class were back to their original seats and I was still in the seat next to Scorpius and I had no idea who was sitting there.

I got out of the seat and grabbed my textbook and blank roll of parchment and quill. As I was walking back to my seat, BUMP! I had accidentally bumped into someone. "Sorry," I said quickly before walking back to my seat. I had no idea who I bumped into as they just continued walking away.

"Nice job, Rose," Summer whispered to me sarcastically once I returned to my seat with my parchment and everything.

"Class, we're going to take some notes so get out a roll of parchment and your quill!" Professor Flitwick squeaked. He silently summoned his copy of our textbook and started the lecture.

"How?" I whispered back to Summer, writing the date on my piece of parchment.

"Well, you just bumped into Scorpius's girlfriend, and you're partners with him and did you see her?! Serena just walked away acting like nothing happened! Good job making her jealous, Rose!" Summer whispered to me excitedly.

My head was spinning. I had bumped into Scorpius's girlfrien? What kind of luck was I having? First, I was paired up with Scorpius for a project, and two, I had managed to bodyslam into Serena Whiteley, girlfriend of the guy I had to work with on a project.

"I didn't make her jealous!" I argued back while furiously taking notes at the same time.

"Then why did she walked off, looking like she was mad? Hm?" Summer smiled at me mischeivously.

"Well, maybe that's how she is!" I retorted quietly.

"Keep telling yourself that, Rosie-" Summer whispered.

"Miss Grant, do you have a question?" Professor Flitwick interrupted/called to Summer. All heads turned around to face Summer.

"Sorry! I was asking Rose what the date was," Summer lied. It was something most of us said when the professors caught us talking in class and it normally worked, getting us out of trouble.

"Oh, if you didn't get it a first time, it's the 3rd of November," Professor Flitwick nodded.

The rest of class continued and we spent the rest of the time taking notes.

"Summer Sophia Grant, you are a liar," I said to my friend as the two of us walked out of the Charms classroom and to the Great Hall for lunch. Summer crinkled her nose at the mention of her full name.

"Hey! That's why I wasn't placed in Hufflepuff," Summer replied, "and besides, tell me you haven't used that excuse once in your life. And if you say you haven't, then you're the liar, Rose Anne Weasley."

I blushed. There was no way getting out of that. I had already used that excuse this year in Astronomy class.

"Look! You're blushing a shade like your hair! C'mon, let's go to lunch," Summer laughed as the two of us headed off to lunch.

* * *

A/N- Thank you so so so much to the people who have put this on their alert and favourite list! It means so much! Can we please try to get to 5 reviews? ;) I love you guys!

- Juliet


	6. Sticks and Stones

chapter 6;

**A/N - If you guys don't want to read about Rose's Quidditch practice (as it was a slight filler) you guys can skip to the middle for some Rose/Scorpius stuff. :3**

I had my Firebolt in my hand as I walked to the Quidditch pitch that Wednesday evening to start my first Quidditch practice of the year.

It was kind of cold outside and I had a scarf wrapped around my neck even though once practice started, I wouldn't need the scarf anymore as I got warmed up quickly, flying through the air trying to get to get the Quaffle through the hoops.

Zoe, who was one of the other two Gryffindor Chasers (I was a Chaser), told me to meet her on the field as she was going to be there at practice early. Practice started at 5:30 and ended at 6:15. Dinner was at 6:45. I had left the Gryffindor common room at 5:20.

By the time I had gotten onto the field, most of my team mates were there. It didn't look like we had any new members (and if we did, I would've recognized them) and with the team we had now, we managed to almost win the Quidditch Cup, but we lost it to Ravenclaw last year. We came into second, which was still good though.

"Hi, Rose!" I heard my name being called as I got to the middle of the pitch where our team was. It was Scarlett Wood, a fifth year, and our team Keeper. Scarlett in my opinion was probably the best Quidditch player on our team as she was the daughter of both famous Quidditch players: Oliver Wood of Puddlemere United and Katie Bell of the Holyhead Harpies.

"Hey, Scarlett!" I hugged her once I got to her. Even though Scarlett was a year older than me, I was still close with her.

Zoe was there with her Firebolt. Rachel Marring was a sixth year and the other Chaser on our team. Brielle Lang was the Seeker and a third year. Andrew Fairmen was a seventh year and our team captain this year and a Beater. The other Beater was Kevin Davies and a sixth year. That was our team.

"Is everyone here?" Andrew asked us loudly. I guess we were all there as we had what was a full team.

"Yeah! Can we start?!" Scarlett exclaimed loudly, leaning with her elbow on my shoulder.

"Hey, I'm captain this year. This is my team!" Andrew called back to her.

"That's great. You guys can go flirt somewhere else. Not all of us are here to watch flirting. We're here for our first Quidditch practice!" Brielle exclaimed back. That jab earned Brielle a round of high-fives. I laughed.

"We're not flirting!" Scarlett defended herself, even though her face was kind of red, "and yeah, Brielle's right. Can we start practice already? It's too cold to be standing her doing nothing!"

"Yeah!" Rachel seconded it.

"Fine," Andrew replied. "Rachel, Rose, and Zoe, you guys can practice getting the Quaffles through the goal posts." He instructed us and pointed at the goal posts. "Brielle, you can practice catching the Snitch." "Scarlett, you try to block the Quaffles coming through and stuff." "And Kevin and I'll practice."

"Wow, we're really practicing together!" Scarlett called back sarcastically as she kicked off the ground on her Firebolt and flew into the air.

And so, that was our practice for the next 45 minutes.

* * *

"Hey, I'm leaving," I announced to my friends the next day at around 7:20.

I had to meet up with Scorpius for the Charms project in the library at 7:30.

"Where are you going?" Lizzie asked me. She, Zoe, and I were working on homework in our dormitory.

"Library. Gotta meet up with Scorpius for the project," I replied.

"Oh, have fun," Zoe called as I walked out my dormitory and headed for the library.

The library was kind of empty when I got there but a few older students were sitting around studying.

I walked over to the Charms textbook section and decided to meet Scorpius there as he didn't tell me where to meet him. The library wasn't too big and he knew his way around the library, right?

I grabbed a few sensible sized books from the shelves and began taking a look at them. One of them was "Greatest Charms in the 21st Century for Witches" and the other one was "History of Charms."

"Hey! Sorry I'm late," Scorpius called out to me as I put History of Charms back. It was a project about a charm, not the history of them.

"Oh, hey!" I called back as I turned around.

"Is that the book that we're using?" he asked me, setting his book bag on the chair next to the desk.

"What?" I asked slightly confused. What did he mean?

He pointed at the "Greatest Charms in the 21st Century" that was on the desk next to me.

"Oh yeah! I thought it would be good for our project!" I replied. I had blanked for that moment.

"Have we decided which charm we're using?" Scorpius asked me.

"Uhh, no. I just found it," I answered him.

"Oh, okay. Can I see it?" he asked me. He ran his fingers through his pale blond hair.

I blinked. "Oh yeah, sure," I smiled and handed the textbook over to him.

"Hmm," Scorpius mumbled as he went through the pages faster than a Firebolt in a Quidditch match.

"Are you actually reading that fast or fanning yourself?" I snorted as I peeked over the front of the textbook to see if he was actually reading that fast.

"Both. I guess," he laughed. "Here. I couldn't find anything interesting." He handed the book back to me.

"You're supposed to look! All you did was flip through it as if you're fanning yourself!" I exclaimed, snatching the book back.

"Someone's mad," Scorpius joked.

"I will be if you won't cooperate! This is a two-person project that is due in a little over a month and is worth half our grade!" I retorted.

"It's due in a little over a month. A month, Rose!" he replied.

"Yeah, well I like to guess things done early and stuff," I answered.

We didn't say anything for the next couple of minutes. Scorpius stood there silently, looking down at his shoes while I leaned against the bookshelf flipping through the book, looking for a spell. But was Scorpius right? After all, this project was due in a month. And all we had to do was present it to the entire class and write an essay on why it was important.

"Um, so are we gonna work on anything?" Scorpius asked me awkwardly as he remained standing there in front of me while I looked at the book.

"Yeah! We gotta find the charm first!" I smiled encouragingly. It wasn't really working. Maybe I was being too happy? Or enthusiastic? Like he said, this project was due a little over a month.

"No offense, Rose, but it looks like you're doing most of the work," he mumbled honestly.

I bit my lip. I had that problem. I usually pretended and acted like I was a leader and wanted to do things my way when it was supposed to be a group thing.

I didn't know what to say, "Then you can help as well." There. That was fair, right?

"You're not even letting me. You're doing everything. Even if I try to contribute, it'll still not be perfect in your eyes. You know, not everyone has these high standards. Not everyone is perfect. I used to think it was so cool how you were smart and didn't listen to what anyone said, but you're acting like nothing but a snob. Stop acting like everything has to be your way, because guess what, Rose?" Scorpius said angrily, pausing.

I remained silent. Anger was bubbling inside me. Who was this Scorpius Malfoy? The Scorpius Malfoy I knew was the one who would always crack jokes and put aside the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry and try to be nice to the Gryffindors and try to be their friends. The Scorpius Malfoy I knew wasn't the one that lashed out at people for no appsrent reason. Seriously, what did I even say to Scorpius to make him so angry. What could've I done? Sure, maybe he was mad because I wouldn't let him contribute, but we had been friends ever since the start of Hogwarts so it didn't seem like a big problem or anything significant.

"What?" I managed to spit out angrily. I could feel my face getting as red as my hair.

"You know what, forget it," Scorpius replied, "you wouldn't even realize how much of a bitch you're becoming. But you know what you did. You wouldn't even admit it if it was straight and in front of your face."

That was it. A bitch. Did he call me that? That had crossed the line. I never did anything to him so there was no reason he had to call me that.

"And I thought how cool it was that you were nice and stuff until you became this- you know what? Forget this," I started out angrily, but stopping. I slammed the textbook that was in my hands onto the desk next to me.

I picked up my bookbag and stuff on the desk and walked out of the library before he had a chance to cruelly add anything else.

My face grew redder. Anger coursed through my veins. I didn't even know what to say. Even if Scorpius apologized a million times and added a Cheering Charm to his apologies, there was absolutely no way I could forgive him. Never could, never will.

And I was absolutely and positively, infinity and back, sure that there was nothing that could make me go back to how I felt about Scorpius.

A/N-

Shorter chapter. But more drama. Mwahah. Please review on your thoughts about this. Thank you for the support from the people who have added this to their alerts/favourite list and a tremendous thank you to the people who reviewed!** And yes, there is a reason why Scorpius is mad at Rose. You'll find out soon enough ;)**

-Juliet


	7. Rumour Has It

**Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter. JKR does :)**

* * *

"What. The. Hell," Summer almost-screamed the next morning at breakfast when I told her what Scorpius had said to me and what exactly happened.

"Yup," I took another bite of my cereal but at this point, it was soggy and deflated, like my feelings.

"And it came out if nowhere!?" Summer interrogated me.

I nodded my head. 12 hours after Scorpius's verbal attack, I still hadn't managed to get over it. Why? It was because Scorpius and I were close friends and in all my years of knowing him, I never thought this would happen.

"I'm gonna freakin' kill Scorpius Fucking Malfoy," Summer ranted angrily.

I smiled a little. I knew that Summer must've been extremely angry because she almost never swore.

"Whoa, did I hear mentions of killing someone?" James, who was walking down the aisle, stopped when he heard Summer and I.

"Go away, James," I told him. I wasn't really in the mood to tell my older cousin why I was so sad right now.

"Is little Rosie going through guy trouble?" James joked.

"There's gonna be guy trouble if you don't get out, James!" I exclaimed at him.

"Geez, Rosie," James said as he walked away.

"Dammit, James," I said, taking a sip of my half-filled pumpkin juice.

"Language," Summer reminded me. I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Hey, do you think I have enough time if I run back to our dormitory to get my Potions homework. I left it back there," Summer said to me.

"Sure. If you run," I shrugged.

"Okay. Be right back!" Summer bolted out of the room faster than a Firebolt.

At this point, my cereal had gotten soggy and to the point where it was hard to eat. The food was still out, but I didn't really have an appitite.

As I was drinking my pumpkin juice, an owl swooped down in front of me. "Hermes?" I asked when I recognized that owl was my own owl, Hermes.

He pecked my finger affectionately as I untied the letter attached to him.

"Thanks, Herms," I said to him once I successfully untied the letter and he flew off to the owlery.

I opened the letter slowly, wondering to see what it was:

Dear Rose,

Hey, girl! It's Victoire, your cousin. But you probably remember that, right? Or are you too busy with Quidditch to remember? Kidding! Well, you better not have forgotten me. But I have next week off and next week also happens to be the time of your next Hogsmeade visit. Not a stalker, I just no stuff, okay? But with the Yule Ball coming up and stuff, I was wondering if it was cool if you wanted to go shopping with me. Some cousin bonding time! It'll be fun. If so, reply and meet me at the Three Broomsticks at 3:00 your next visit! See you then and I miss you!

Love, Vic.

I squealed a little when I finished reading the letter. It had been ages since I last seen Victoire. Well, not ages, but you know what I mean. I hardly saw Victoire these days. The last time I had seen her was at the end of this summer. She had a job, working at Witch Weekly, that girly fashion magazine I didn't like at all. I don't know, it was weird. I remember I found Lizzie reading it last year or something before exam week, but besides that, I didn't read it.

Working at Witch Weekly was perfect for Victoire, in my opinion. She was flawless looking in whatever she wore, she had great fashion sense, and she loved fashion. I guess that was pretty much Victoire's dream job.

_Shopping with Victoire_, I thought. That would be better than shopping with my friends, I guess. I remember the last time when we went to Hogsmeade and I shopped with my like Lizzie, Summer, and Zoe. It failed (kind of). I didn't bother to show up and had (sort of) ditched them to go hang out with Lucy and James, but they didn't seem so mad about it.

Victoire had the best fashion sense in the whole Weasley/Potter family. I mean, that's probably what you get for being part Veela. She managed to look good in anything and she could pull off anything, even the old Weasley Christmas sweater. I couldn't. In my opinion, I looked like a tomato in my red Weasley jumper.

"Hey! I'm back!" I heard a voice and what sounded like footsteps coming closer to me.

I turned around to see who it was: Summer. She had her homework in hand and was red faced from running from our dormitory back down to the Great Hall.

"Hey!" I smiled at her cheerfully. The letter from Victoire seemed to have sucked up my attention for the world. When I looked up to greet Summer, I didn't even notice that most of the Great Hall was empty.

"Why are you here? You know it's almost time for class, right!?" Summer exclaimed at me, picking up her bookbag that she had left next to me and giving me an urgent look.

"Yeah, I realize that now." I frowned. I picked up my bookbag and we both started walking out of the Great Hall and to class.

Summer shoved her homework in her bookbag. "Hello, it's gonna get wrinkled!" I pointed at the sight. Sorry, but I always put my homework neatly into my bookbag. I dunno, I get told it's inherited. I just like to see the neatness of things.

"Sense of urgency, we're late. I don't think we have time to fold stuff neatly and stuff!" **(A/N: Sense of urgency, I'll mentally thank you, Mrs. Simpson :3)** Summer exclaimed at me as we headed up the stairs.

"Whatever, Sum," I smiled at her. I didn't want to be nagging or force my opinion on her or anything.

"Um, hey… have you heard it?" Summer said slowly and quietly as we got made it to the Potions classroom.

"Heard what?" I asked Summer. I turned to look her her. When Summer spoke quietly and slowly, it meant something important or urgent had happened. The Potions classroom was almost filled but Professor Slughorn wasn't in the classroom yet so class hadn't started yet.

"The gossip," Summer whispered to me as we walked down the aisle and found a seat near the back.

"Of what?" I asked in an equally low voice. I didn't pay attention to gossip. I went out of my way to avoid it because I remember Victoire (before I went to Hogwarts) tell me about the drama and gossip she had unfortunately gotten into over a guy with her dormitory mate/friend. But that wasn't the only reason why I avoided gossip. I had seen girls crying in the hallway over guys or friend drama.

"Well, rumour has it that you threatened… Serena," Summer said quickly. She looked like she had been holding that in for a long time and was happy to have finally said it or something. It looked like it was holding her down like an anchor holding a ship down.

"Wait, Serena like Scorpius's girlfriend?" I asked Summer confusedly. Me? Threatening Serena? Why? I had never even spoken to Serena! I had only seen her and had only heard her talked. I had never even had a face-to-face conversation with her! How would I even threaten her if I had never even talked to her. Well, there's sending threatening owl messages, but seriously!? How desperate were people for gossip these days!?

"Yeah… they said that you told Serena to stay away from Scorpius and he would never like her and that you were his friend first," Summer continued. As Summer told me more about the whole thing, my curiousity and anger towards Scorpius and Serena progressed.

"That's a lie!" I exclaimed hotly, "I had never even talked to that girl!"

"That's what I was trying to say, but they were all, 'No! Rose threatened her!'," Summer continued. From her expression, she looked pained to continue talking about this.

"Who's they?" I asked Summer. So the whole school or something on in on this now?

"Some Slytherin and Ravenclaw girls. I think their names are Natalia, Delilah, and Ashley or something. But seriously, Rose. Don't listen to them. They're irrelevent!" Summer seemed to be pleading with me or something.

Natalia, Delilah, and Ashley. I know that Ashley was a Slytherin and Delilah and Natalia were Ravenclaws. They were all in my year. They weren't friends (that I know of). Delilah and Natalia were best friends from what I saw. They were always seen in the hallways and stuff. But they were known for one thing: complaining that they didn't belong in the house they did. They both insisted that they were Gryffindors, and to my wonder and amazement, I don't know how they even got into Hogwarts.

"Rose, you okay? I probably shouldn't have told you, right?" Summer asked lowly. From the way she sounded, it sounded like she regretted telling me this.

"No, it's fine. I mean, I guess that's why-" I started, but was cut off my Professor Slughorn. "Good morning, class!" he boomed, signaling that it was time to cut off all side conversations and time for class.

This Potions class could be summed up in two quick words: delightfully boring. I was dying to know more about the whole me threatening Serena thing, but there was no chance of having a conversation about it during Potions. We did a read aloud the entire time and took notes. The only talking there was was about potions.

"Tell me more," I said to Summer right as soon as class was over and we were packing up our stuff to go to our next class. I was dying to hear more and I felt as if I was to explode the entire time in class. I wasn't typically intersted in drama, but somehow, I was interested in this. Well, it was kind of about me as well.

"About?" Summer asked me, putting her textbook into her bookbag. "Let's go."

I had already packed my stuff up. It was part of the freaking out and feelign anxious over the whole Serena/Whatever drama.

"The whole Serena thing!" I exclaimed impaitently as Summer and I walked out of the classroom and onto our next class. I knew we wouldn't have much time to talk because my next class was Arithmacy while her next class was something like Care for Magical Creatures or something.

"Ohh. Well, I've already told you most of the stuff, right?" Summer asked me as we paced down the stairs. The Arithmacy classroom was down another flight of stairs.

"Do you think the reason why Scorpius won't talk to me is because he heard all this drama and all the lies?" I asked Summer. It seemed pretty reasonable.

"I dunno, Rosie. But Scorpius is a prat. After all, he's a Slytherin," Summer reminded me.

I sighed, "Summer, it's 2021. Are we going to continue with the whole Slytherin and Gryffindor rivalry thing?" I had heard stories from my mum about the whole Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry when she went to Hogwarts, but that was like 30 years!

"Yes, because Slytherins are weird," Summer answered me.

"Whatever," I joked with her.

After that discussion, we made our way to our respective classes.

The next week went by… like a blur and before I knew it, the Hogsmeade visit was here and this visit would by special because Victoire was going to help me shop for a dress for the Yule Ball. _The Yule Ball_, I thought to myself. I had managed to put it off in my mind that I forgot that in about a month, it would be time for it.

The week went by with more homework, I didn't hear any more mentions of the "drama" as I kept my ears open. I remember that I was supposed to have met up with Scorpius so we could work on the project, but ever since his little attack, I was going out of my way to not talk to him or even look at him. I knew that we had to meet up at least 3 or 4 times and we had only met up once. I know it was unlike me, but I didn't care about this grade. I'd rather do it independently than work with Scorpius Malfoy.

I had sent Victoire my reply after school that day and she had told me to meet her in front of the Three Broomsticks at around 2:15.

I had told my friends that I would be shopping with my cousin and they, again, seemed fine with it. Lizzie told me that her older sister had sent her a lot of dresses so if I couldn't find a dress, I was welcome to look through the variety of dresses Lizzie had in her possession now.

"Hey, Rose!" I heard my name being called as I walked by the Three Broomsticks when I finally got to Hogsmeade. According to my watch, it was 2:10, so I was early/on time. Better early than late, right?

I turned around to see who it was and yes, I was right. My first guess of who it was and I got the guess right: Victoire.

"Hey, Vic!" I ran up to her. Victoire was standing in front of the Three Broomsticks entrance. I gave her a hug as a "long time so see" type of thing.

"You look so warm," I said to her after I gave her a hug. She was wearing a blue winter jacket and jeans and Merlin knows how many layers. I was only wearing a scarf and a graphic hoodie I got during the summer along with my jeans.

"Yeah, winter sucks. But it's not exactly cold yet though," Victoire answered. She didn't seem to change appearance wise since the last time I saw her. Victoire still had her silver blonde hair which was shorter, so I guess she cut it, she was still super tall and still had had bright blue eyes.

"Do you know where you want to shop?" Victoire continued. She started walking down the road and I followed her.

"I dunno. Anywhere I guess." I shrugged. I wasn't big on the whole dress shopping thing. When I went to Hogsmeade, the only stores I went to were like Zonko's, The Three Broomsticks, and Honeydukes. I didn't go to any of the other stores in Hogsmeade even though I've probably been going to Hogsmeade all my life.

"Alright. We're not going to Miranda's though, deal? Sorry if you like that place, but no. Just no," Victoire said to me.

I gave her a confused look. "Why not Miranda's?" Anyone that wanted stylish or cute clothes went to Miranda's and it was the center of the teenage witch clothing.

"Because I don't like it. Well, they have nice clothes, but I just seriously hate the girl who owns the place. It's mutual hate. We were classmates at Hogwarts," Victoire answered me.

"Ohh," I replied, seeming to understand. I had recognized the girl who owned Miranda's the few times I walked into the store.

"Do you want to go to Helena's House for Dresses? They have some really cute dresses," Victoire suggested.

"Whatever works, I'm clueless at dress shopping, honestly," I answered her truthfully. Wherever Victoire wanted to go or thought was best, that was the place I was going to go to.

"No, you're not. Helena's House for Dresses is pretty cool," Victoire answered. "Here we are." She pointed at a small little shop that was in a part of Hogsmeade I had never been to. It was deeper into Hogsmeade than the parts I normally went to.

There was a pink sign at the front of the store with the name of the store, glass windows with light shining from inside, and a mannequin with what I guess was the lastest fashion trend or something.

Victoire opened the door for me and we walked in. There were racks with dresses everywhere. And I meant it. From the way it looked, there looked like long dresses, short dresses, and dresses in every single colour on the colour spectrum. I'm pretty sure I'm probably going to get smacked in the face by a fashion designer or something for calling a long dress a "long dress." There was probably a name for a "long dress."

"Do you see anything you like?" Victoire asked me as we started to walk around the store.

"I see 9,000 dresses in every shape and form," I answered her. I walked over to the closest rack of dresses and pulled out one at random. It was a dark blue dress that was in the middle length wise. There was a stud attached to the top of the dress.

"That looks cool," Victoire answered me while pawing through the other dresses at the rack near me.

I frowned slightly. By the tone of it, it seemed like Victoire was only saying that it looked cool to not shatter my feelings or something and she knew that secretly it didn't look good on me. If that was the case, then no feelings were hurt as I just randomly pulled that dress out.

"Hello?" We both heard a voice call. Victoire and I turned in the direction of where we heard the voice in unison. The voice seemed to have came from near the back of the store.

Out emerged a middle aged woman from behind a bright pink curtain near the cash register. She had her curly dark blonde hair piled up in a bun and was wearing a pair of black glasses.

"Hi!" Victoire greeted her, smiling. I greeted her by smiling.

"Are both of you looking for a dress? For the Hogwarts Yule Ball, I presume?" She walked closer to us.

"Well, my cousin is. Not me," Victoire replied, pointing at me.

"Yeah, I'm looking for a dress for the ball. I don't really know what to wear though," I answered her.

The owner (I guess) took a look over me. It felt kind of weird and I didn't know what to say. It just felt weird to have someone I didn't know look over or do like a one-over scan at me. Maybe she was doing this to see which colour or type of dress would look best on me?

"Green. That colour would look fabulous with your skin and bright red hair!" She was finally done with looking over at me.

"I never considered that green would look good on me," I answered truthfully. It wasn't that I disagreed with her preferences, it was that I never considered green good looking on me.

"Why? You don't like it? That's okay," She replied.

"Oh! No! I've never worn a lot of green so I don't really know if it'll look good on me, so if you say you think it's gonna look good on me, I'm pretty sure it will," I answered her.

"Thank you, honey," she replied, "we just got a stock of green dresses in the back. I'll go in back to find a dress." And she disappeared to the back of the store.

"Well, this is fun," Victoire said to me.

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not," I joked. From the way Victoire said it, it sounded sarcastic, but her tone wasn't sarcastic. Do you kinda get what I'm saying.

"No, I'm not being sarcastic! This is fun. Cousin bonding time," Victoire smiled to me.

"And here we are," the lady returned from the back, her arm full of dresses. Dark green, bright green, olive green, and even lime green.

"Wow, that's a lot of dresses," I replied.

"Yes, do you see any you like?" She asked me.

"I see a lot of greens," I answered her truthfully.

She laughed. "Here's some dresses. The changing rooms are in the back, so try them all on and any you like, we'll be on our way with buying them!" She thrust a handful of dresses in my arms.

"Wow, thanks," I said, smiling. I had an armful of dresses in my hands and I guess I was to try them all on? I started walking out back to find the dressing rooms.

"Oh, and come back out after you change!" I heard Victoire call after me.

The dressing rooms were in the back and from what I saw, there were a few silver doors and I guess those were the changing rooms. My arms were full so when I got to the changing rooms, I opened it by pushing it open with my left shoulder.

The dressing room was roomy and there was a seat and hooks to hang the dresses and a full length mirror.

Laying the pile of dresses down on the seat, I selected the fairest and most normal looking shade of green out of the whole thing.

As I tried it on, there was something about this dress. I just didn't know. I guess it screamed, "BUY ME!" Or something. It came down to my knees, it was a normal green shade with a slight teal tint and a V-neck. But it wasn't a ridiculously low V-neck like those creepy ones. Wait, never mind.

I opened the door to the dressing room and walked out for my cousin to see the dress. Personally, I felt that this was probably _the _dress, even though it was the only one I tried on so far.

"Oh my gosh, Rose. We have to get that dress. It looks perfect," Victoire exclaimed.

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**A/N-**

**I feel kind of lousy for not updating this story in almost two months, but with school and applications piling up, well, long story short- school sucks. But now it's winter break! And that means nothing but writing. Well, and eating. But the number of people who have reviewed this story, favourited it and put it on their alert list is astounding. You guys are all awesome and thank you so much for the support! Keep your eyes open for a Christmas fic coming out today or tomorrow! **

**Juliet**


	8. Joy

Chapter 8

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**(A/N – This chapter gets slightly more interesting! Well, in my weird mind it gets more interesting).**

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"Yeah, you think?" I beamed at Victoire and the lady who owned the store. I looked down at my dress. If only there was a mirror in front of me to see how I looked.

"You _need _to get that dress!" Victoire told me, "it looks perfect on you!"

"That dress makes your red hair look darling!" the owner complimented me.

I laughed, "I don't even know how it even looks on me, so I can't really say, can I?"

"Well, you're getting back in that dressing room and looking at yourself and for sure we're getting that dress, Rose. There is no way you're going to show up at the Yule Ball without that dress on," Victoire said to me, her blue eyes growing wide and there was a huge grin on her face.

"Okay, okay. I guess we'll buy this dress then," I said to Victoire. She seemed pretty passionate about me wearing this dress to the Yule Ball and her opinion on style and dresses and clothes were important to me now because well, I couldn't trust my own opinion. I wasn't really big on clothes and dressing to look good.

"You know we are," I heard Victoire call as I walked back to the dressing rooms in the back of the store to change out of the dress and into the clothes I was wearing before.

Once I got back into the dressing room and shut the door behind me, I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. Victoire was right: this dress did look good on me, in my opinion. The green complimented (if you could say) my red hair and it didn't make me look washed out like some of the previous dresses I've worn made me look.

I slid out of the dress and back into my old clothes. After changing, I looked at the pile of green dresses that were lying on the bench and that I didn't try on. The dress that I wanted to buy for the ball was in my hand. Picking up the pile of green dresses so I could return them to the front and pay for the one I was to buy, I exited the dressing room the way I came in: pushing it open with my shoulder as my arms were full.

I walked out to the front of the store. "Here are the dresses," I said to the owner, holding out the dresses.

"Oh! That's great. You could just put them on the counter," she pointed at the counter, "are you ready to pay?"

"Yeah." I nodded and turned to Victoire, "unless you want to buy anything or something."

Victoire laughed. "No. Do you want me to pay or do you have your own money?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I have my own money. Thanks for offering though." I smiled at my cousin, happy that she had offered. I had basically brought half of my life savings, not to sound hyperbolic, but about ¼ of the money I possessed and had available to me. I had remembered throwing in about 9 or 10 Galleons and a couple of Sickles into the Muggle airmail coin pouch I had gotten over the summer.

I'm pretty sure that was more than enough money, after all, it was just a dress right? Usually on trips to Hogsmeade, I just brought around 1 or 2 Galleons and a couple of Sickles and that was always more than enough.

Victoire and I walked up to the cash register to pay. I laid the dress out on the counter for her to fold or do whatever it is the people do at clothing stores when you pay for them. "7 Galleons, please," the owner said to me.

I nodded as I reached into my pocket to pull out my coin bag. It wasn't very big and was pocket-size. I unzipped the zipper and pulled out a few Galleons. I laid them out on the countertop to see how Galleons so far that was: 4. I counted out three more and put them on the counter.

"Thank you! Have a great day. Do you want a bag for your dress?" the owner said to me once she collected up all the Galleons.

"Yes, please," I answered her. I couldn't imagine how it would be if I didn't have a bag to carry my dress in and I was walking around Hogsmeade with a dress in hand. I'm not exactly the neatest person in the world and I tend to get things dirty. A lot.

She pulled a clear bag out from below the counter top and slid the dress into the bag. "You're very welcome! Have a great day!" she beamed at me.

"You too!" I answered and Victoire smiled at her as we walked out of the store and back into Hogsmeade.

"We did it! We finally found a dress for you!" Victoire squealed happily once we were outside. She made it sound like we had to go to at least 6 stores and I couldn't find a dress at any store.

"You make it sound like it was impossible to find a dress. We only went to one store," I chuckled. I was happy that it wasn't so hard to find a dress. In fact, the experience I had with buying my Yule Ball dress was easier than how I envisioned it inside my mind.

"But we did find you a dress! You look so beautiful in it, Rosie! I wish our entire family could see you in that dress," Victoire gushed as we started walking back to the more "populated" part of Hogsmeade.

"I'll promise to owl you guys pictures! One of my dorm mates has a camera that takes instant pictures. Of course I'm sending all of you guys pictures," I answered Victoire. Yeah, it was true. Lizzie had a- I think it was called a polaroid camera and we spent most of our time taking goofy pictures of ourselves and Spellotaping them up on our wall in our dormitory so basically the walls of our dormitory were made up of pictures of me, Summer, Zoe, and Lizzie.

"You better. Or I'm gonna make sure someone in our family'll send you a howler," Victoire joked with me.

"Oh Merlin. I wonder what a Howler really is like. I mean, I heard it's scary and stuff and embarassing, but really? Have you ever received a Howler?" I asked my cousin. I had heard of people getting Howlers but I had no clue what it was really like. I had never received a Howler in my life so I guess I didn't have the first-hand experiencing, but I had no idea if Victoire had ever gotten one.

"One of my friends got one in our fifth year. Seriously, never try to get one. It's bloody embarassing and people will remember you for it," Victoire answered me.

We finally made it back to the "center" of Hogsmeade, where the Three Broomsticks, Honeydukes, ect. were.

"So I guess this is 'bye' now?" I asked Victoire as we stood in front of the Three Broomsticks. Then I realized that I shouldn't have said that. Victoire was my cousin and maybe this trip was a chance for us to catch up and it was like I was pushing her away and I wasn't grateful of her company, which I totally was!

"Getting rid of me already, huh, Rose?" Victoire smiled playfully. She didn't look like she was offended by that or thought it was bad.

"No! I didn't mean that," I blushed, "I meant you probably don't want to stick around her forever and watch me do nothing in Hogsmeade, right?" Even though I was smart in class, I wasn't the smartest with my words.

Victoire laughed, "It's okay. I know what you meant. I was just joking." She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug.

"Thanks for everything, Vic. Have an awesome rest of the day," I answered her as she let go of the hug.

"You too, Rose. Bye! Tell me everything about the Yule Ball and don't forget to write to me, telling me all the crazy stuff you're up to at Hogwarts now," Victoire replied back.

"Bye, Victoire!" I gave her one last hug before she Disapperated away.

What was I to do now? Victoire was now gone and hanging out with my cousin was the thing I was looking forward to the most.

My friends were probably around her somewhere. I decided to head over to the Three Broomsticks to get a Butterbeer or something.

"One Butterbeer, please," I answered to the waitress once I sat down on a stool near the front of the shop and a waitress approached me to get my order.

"Hot or cold?" she asked me, scribbling down the order.

"Hot, please," I answered, smiling.

"6 Sickles please," the waitress answered back. I dug into my little coin pouch and pulled out exactly 6 Sickles and placed them on the counter for the waitress.

"Thanks. Your order will come shortly," the waitress answered and went off somewhere to get the Butterbeer.

I nodded. "Hey, Rose?" I heard my name being called somewhere. I turned around to see who it was that was calling my name.

"Oh, hey, Andrew," I answered once I saw who it was. It was Andrew Warner, a guy in my year. He had light brown hair and eyes and he was tall. He was a Ravenclaw and I had seen him around in my classes and I was sure I had talked to him at least once in my four years at Hogwarts, but we were never like close friends. We were more like aquaintances.

He walked up to me and sat down on the stool next to me. "Hot Butterbeer?" the waitress returned with a steaming glass of warm Butterbeer. My mouth started to water once the waitress placed the glass down in front of me and I could smell the rich and creamy, familiar butterscotchy smell.

"Thank you so much," I thanked the waitress.

"That looks good," Andrew answered, smiling, looking at my Butterbeer glass.

"Yeah, I know." I lifted up my glass and took a sip of the warm and creamy drink that I had always adored, "what's up?" It wasn't everyday that Andrew Warner came up to talk to me, even though we had talked at least once and like I said, I recognized him around the school.

"Well, you know how the Yule Ball is coming up, right?" He asked me. I set down the glass immediately once I heard the words come out of his mouth. _He's going to ask me to the Yule Ball_, I thought to myself. It just felt like he was going to ask me for some reason. But again, don't get me wrong, I won't mind if Andrew asked me to the Yule Ball. He was a nice guy and he played Quidditch as well.

"Yeah, what about it?" I nodded and I tried to hide my smile. _He's not going to ask you, he's not going to ask you, _I thought to myself quickly to try to get myself to calm down. _He's going to think you're a weird ginger who was dropped on her head when she was born._

"Well, I was thinking, do you want to go… with me?" Andrew asked slowly, "unless you're already going with someone!" He added quickly.

I knew it. "Of course I'll go with you," I answered gratefully and happily, "it's going to be really fun. I can't wait."

"So is that a yes?" Andrew asked hopefully.

"Yes," I answered beaming, "I'll go to the Yule Ball with you."

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**A/N –**

**I was halfway done with this chapter around 3 weeks ago, but with me being lazy, I didn't upload it and I finally finished it today! How about we get the review count up to 5? You're my best friend if you review *gives doe eyes* But I feel like the ending of this chapter was a little rushed and the story is really slow, so I'll try to quicken the pace. Anyways, with a three day weekend, expect an update around next week, or the week after, depending on how lazy I am. Thanks so much for reading and please review! I don't mind constructive criticism. Bye, guys! J**

**- Juliet.**


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